John Feehery: Speaking Engagements

Cheers to the Obnoxious Boston Fan

Posted on October 31, 2013

I can’t say I was exactly cheering for the BoSox to win. It is hard to cheer for a team that the media is so in love with.

I watch Morning Joe, and pretty much all they care about it the Red Sox and the Yankees. I hate the Yankees. Hate them. I am lukewarm to the Red Sox, mostly because of the fawning media attention.

But you have to hand it to the Red Sox. They came through in the clutch.

Probably the most exciting figure is Big Papi. You can’t really explain how the big guy has made such a comeback, but he did. He proved he was Boston Strong. Pretty impressive for an old guy.

My former college roommate is Boston strong.

He almost died with a bad liver, but now he does Crossfit to stay in shape. He's had a long struggle, but now his struggles are with pull-ups and pushups (and whatever else those crazy Crossfit people do).

Bill Speros is much more conservative than I am, as he will tell you given the chance. We used to argue at the Avalanche Bar at Marquette University about politics all hours of the night. He used to call me a liberal, but even back then, I was an establishment Republican.

Bill’s from Boston, and every other word is fawk this or fawk that.

When the Patriots played the Bears in the Super Bowl in 1985, he watched it at my house in Chicago. I thoroughly enjoyed the thrashing da Bears inflicted on the hapless Pats, but I guess you can say that he has had the last laugh since then.

It was unfawking believable.

I don’t know how many Super Bowls the Patriots have won since then, but I do know how many the Bears have won: zero.

Bill followed his dreams about being a sports reporter, and his career path eventually took him to Orlando. His bad liver sidetracked him for a while, but now is back with a blog that is picked up on Boston.com. He calls himself the Obnoxious Boston Fan, and his blog and videos are hilarious.

He’s got the obnoxious part down cold.

Bill is Boston strong, and I am happy for him.

The city of Boston has gone through a lot over the last year.

The marathon bombing was terrible. Lots of good people lost their lives and their limbs. But Boston didn’t let the terrorists keep them down.

The Boston Bruins lost to my Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals this summer. It was a great series, and both organizations showed a lot of class during and after the final game.

But I know my Boston friends were pretty disappointed about the outcome.

They can’t be disappointed about the Red Sox outcome.

Nobody expected the Beantowners to be as strong this year. Nobody expected Big Papi to make a dramatic comeback. Nobody expected them to grow out those beards like they were part of the Duck Dynasty family, nobody expected them to beat the Yankees (well, maybe some did), nobody expected them to beat the Tigers.

They went from worst to first. It’s a great story that the Obnoxious Boston Fan is going to enjoy telling for the next thirty years (or so).